[TR] Chair Peak - North Face 12/3/2011

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Hold up, sorry for furthering this thread hijack (but I mean, what's done is done, right?), but did you break your leg while downclimbing the descent gully? That would suggest that the rap is not quite optional like you first said. In cornfed's picture it looks downclimbable because as I remember the top bit is the steepest, but it would be nice to have some clarification in case I find myself up there soon. Sorry about the leg.

 

The gully can be safely downclimbed w/o a rap if the snow conditions are favorable. Just use your judgement on site. :-)

[wetslide]

I'll humor you Gene and give you the kinda-short version.

 

So I solo the N face. It was thin. Stand on the summit for a few minutes. Then I downclimb to the normal rap station. From here I decide to play it by ear and downclimb as much as possible. The climbing was easy so I just kept going. At the point where the rap usually stops I decided to glissade. I know you aren't supposed to do so with crampons on but I was being lazy or complacent I guess. So I would glissade until I got going too fast and would self-arrest and dig my feet in (the snow was soft mostly). Then I hit a patch of icy snow and caught my crampon, pulling my leg back and right (it's my right leg so it pulled away from my body). I knew something was wrong. I felt pain in my ankle all the way up to my right outside calf. I sat for a few minutes composing myself. Then I took off my crampons. I tried to walk and that worked a little bit. Then I tried crawling. That worked a little bit. It wasn't steep enough to glissade really ( I was most the way down to my skis at this point). After a big effort I made it to my skis. I took my skins off and secured my tools and crampons to my bag. Then I prepared for pain. I started off skiing and quickly realized that going right was good, and going left was no good. This is because going left puts more pressure on my right leg. Now, I've skied my whole life practically but this was a lot of work. I found a steep gully that I had to get down. At this point I just took off the skis and walked down it. From here I slid down sideways for a while until I made it to the gully that goes up to flow reversal (I believe). Here I realized that I could ride fakie and thereby traverse the slope back and forth. This actually worked really well but still took a really long time. Part of the problem was that any undulation in the slope bumped my ski which then caused pain. But riding backwards hurt a lot less. At this point it was started to get pretty damn dark. But I made it to Source Lake. At this point I pulled out my headlamp only to find that the batteries were dead. I hadn't eaten since breakfast (fairly typical of my as of late in the mountains- don't know how I do it, and as a triathlete, marathoner, ect, I know it isn't ideal). I had food just wasn't hungry. I set off down the icy trail back. At first it is quite difficult, involving many little ascents. Then, it opens up and I'm able to maintain speed. All the while I'm listening to some economic guru blabber on about becoming a millionaire from my iphone. Finally I hit the cat track and blast out of there. I was so happy to see the car. The time from the injury to getting to the car was approximately 2-3 hours. I did the normal post-climb routine (eating, drinking a beer, taking tylenol) and drove home. After getting home I realized I was in quite a bit of pain so I had someone take me to the ED. There, after taking a few x-rays, they discovered I had fractured my Fibula.

[Bronco]

Good work getting yourself out of there, hope you heal quick.

[alpinemorg]

So not only are you a soloist, now you've survived your incredible epic. I'm sure you're now penning the next piece of classic alpine literature. Can't wait to read it...douche. Thanks to the OP for useful info.

[rob]

Since I was the rookie, he let me do most of the leading.

 

 

ah, I miss climbing

[genepires]

I guess you were lucky in that it wasn't completely snapped. I wonder if the relatively speedy descent would have been possible with a fully fractured fibula.

 

Good job getting out of there. I guess all the time in the pain cave paid off.

 

This would be a good posting as a warning in the newbie forum. (not insinuating you are a newbie) Reading this account would stick with newbies and they would never do that.

[genepires]

So not only are you a soloist, now you've survived your incredible epic. I'm sure you're now penning the next piece of classic alpine literature. Can't wait to read it...douche. Thanks to the OP for useful info.

 

It was my fault Colin wrote out his climbing day. I was curious. Any angst at thread drift should be directed at me.

[Cobra_Commander]

I guess you were lucky in that it wasn't completely snapped. I wonder if the relatively speedy descent would have been possible with a fully fractured fibula.

 

You can often walk on a well-fractured fibula, but it will hurt. If he had fractured his tibia, he would have been fucked.

[DPS]

If he had fractured his tibia, he would have been fucked.

 

I fractured my tibia while skiing Mt Snoqualmie. I was able to walk out on it (it was too hard to ski on it).

[Cobra_Commander]

That is impressive.

[alpinemorg]

So not only are you a soloist, now you've survived your incredible epic. I'm sure you're now penning the next piece of classic alpine literature. Can't wait to read it...douche. Thanks to the OP for useful info.

 

It was brought to my attention I was harshing (or was hating the word?) to much, and I don't like to be to responsible for hurt feelings.

 

So in an effort to pracitce well-balanced living I feel I should also pay a compliment to the critisized (though I did think I was showing positivity towards the Original Poster....I digress); I am thankful you made it out safely and hope you feel grateful and blessed with your outcome, I also appreciate and respect your dealing with your own situation and not dragging others in to it.